The Holidays Mean So Much to Me

I love the holiday season. It is, without question, my favorite time of year.  Everyone seems to be in a giving, selfless, helping spirit and it warms my heart to see complete strangers helping each other out. Just when I start to feel blue about this chaotic and destructive world we live in today, I get very pleasantly surprised. 

To me, the holidays mean making the fifteen second walk across the street to my grandparents house on Christmas Eve. I grew up here in Beaverton, and I have spent every Christmas since I can remember in this house, making the same trip every year across the street. It has always been me, Mom, Dad, my brother and sister, and Mimi and Baba (my grandparents) celebrating together. It never fails to be a little dysfunctional, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It always begins with my parents making jokes about skipping Christmas for a year and donating all our presents to the needy. Then there's us kids still pretending there is a Santa Claus. 

The holidays mean pajamas, too much hot chocolate, and warm tea. Mimi and my mom slaving in the kitchen on Christmas Eve over green bean casserole and cheesy potatoes that will surely give you a heart attack. Don't laugh. They are delicious. 

The holidays mean a full family room and a large tree with presents for the entire family under it. Sure, we start out politely watching each person open their respective gift. By the end it is a mad free-for-all. We never seem to mind. 

The holidays mean listening to Christmas music. I have been listening this year since the first of November. I listen to it everywhere. In the car. At home. At school. On my computer. What can I say? I love my Christmas music.  My favorites this year continue to be the N'Sync album and Jessica Simpson. 

The holidays mean half eaten cookies from Santa, an empty glass of milk, and being lazy on Christmas Day, enjoying our new goodies from good ol' Saint Nick. Without a doubt, this is my favorite time of year. 

So my first Christmas party this year was with my cohort at Pacific University. On our last day of class for fall term, our professor slaved in the kitchen over gingerbread and frosting. We met at Mark's house to drink homemade apple cider, decorate a giant gingerbread house, eat too many sweets, and enjoy each other's company. Here are some pictures from the get together!

Wrapping Up

Aaaah, it is the end of fall term! As we are wrapping up coursework at Pacific University in my Master's program, I am feeling good about everything I have accomplished. I am amazed at how much work I have completed, all the reading I have done, and how much information I have embedded in this brain of mine. . Although I have a lot of work to do over holiday break regarding getting my work sample together, I feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders as I finalize major projects I have been working on for months. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! I am now getting the chance to look over everything and feel a sense of accomplishment. Whew! This week I published my website, a homemade DVD with my expressive arts lesson video, a podcast on the accomplishments of social activist, Jane Addams, a 40-page writer's workshop genre study, and an emergency resource box. To see some of my work accomplishments, please feel free to visit my website! Click here. 

Discovery Boxes With the Kinders

Last week I had the opportunity to work with the Kinders in the ELC playing with  discovery boxes. I put together a magnet discovery box and worked with little Ike (in the picture above). So what is a discovery box? A discovery box can be any box, trunk, or other holding device filled with objects and artifacts that represent a topic. For our purposes with the Kinders, the topic could be anything related to math, health, or science. The box I put together was about the properties of magnets and their relationship to other objects. Other people in my cohort did fun boxes to discover the food guide pyramid, insects, the five senses, nature, etc. Our interaction with the children was limited, but it was entertaining to see their responses and reactions as they discovered away! In my magnet box I included all kinds of magnets: magnet wands, discs, marbles, paper clips, a giant horseshoe magnet, magnet bars, etc. There were a million little pieces which might have been a mistake as I watched them being flung all over the room, but Ike and Connor seemed to really enjoy them! Ike was more involved with the activity than Connor, who proceeded to make a necklace by stringing the paper clips together. I am in love with these kinders!

Movement and Dance

In my expressive arts class the other day we had a guest come in and run us through demonstrations of different ways to get children involved with movement and dance. I had an absolute blast! My classmates and I were making up interpretive dances, contorting our bodies into odd positions, and moving however the music made us feel. We got the chance to partner dance and make-up routines, play with rythm sticks, etc. 

After the demonstration, I decided to do some research of my own to see the benefits interpretive movement and dance had on child development. I found that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 states that, "Studying music encourages self-discipline and diligence traits that carry over into mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history and geography." Additional research I came across supports that music helps prepare the mind for specific disciplines of learning; skills learned through music carry over into study skills, communication skills and abstract reasoning skills used to all parts of life, according to a 1997 article in the Journal of Neurological Research. Author of The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell, traced neurological development during childhood and found that prior to a major spurt of neurological integration in the brain during elementary school years, learning occurs through movement and quick emotional associations. For example, by age two, the brain has begun to fuse with the body via marching, dancing, and developing a sense of physical rhythm. The more music children are exposed to before they enter school, the more deeply this stage of neural coding will assist them throughout their lives. 

Through the demonstrations and supporting research, I am extremely excited to incorporate interpretive movement and dance into my teaching pedagogy. I now strongly believe that arts education can make a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and can even help to level the "learning field" across socioeconomic boundaries. According the the YouthARTS Development Project of 1996 et. al., arts education has a measurable impact on youth risk in deterring delinquent behavior and truancy problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those engaged in after school and summer programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.